Dark Destiny_A Dark Saints MC Novel

by Jayne Blue

  “You’re right.”

  What I was about to do was almost club treason, almost. But Hex had said someone was rotten in our midst.

  “Just come back here when it’s done. I’m your Old Lady now, got it? We don’t have secrets. It’s us and Hugo. We’re the ones who have your back. Don’t forget it. And don’t throw it away, no matter what. Even if someone tells you it’s for our own good. It’s not.”

  I leaned in and kissed her. Her soft body melted into mine.

  This was what I didn’t want to live without ever again. No job, no house, no bike, no club was worth losing her. I couldn’t stand to leave her there, soft and warm in this bed. But it was time to go to work.

  It was time to take action instead of being ordered around.

  I believed I could still have my MC. But if there was a cancer, I needed to find it and eradicate it.

  I texted three of my brothers and we met at Woody’s Bar. It was a normal thing to do. We’d been in this place together a hundred times before.

  I told them what I’d learned. They listened.

  I’d reached out to Axle, Maddox, and Shep. Shep and Maddox went furthest back in the club. They were second generation. Axle was like me; the club had adopted him as family.

  It wasn’t easy to share the accusation from Hex but I recounted what he said.

  “And you’re supposed to call him what? At nine tonight?” Axle asked as he let it sink in.

  “Yes.”

  “Listen to me. What I’m proposing is against club rules. We could all get turfed for it.” I knew I was on a dangerous line. Forming a sub-group to spy on one of our own could get us all killed.

  “Unless it fucking works. In that case we’re saving the club.” Shep, as the son of our President, was as close to the top as it got. E.Z. believed the worst of Shep, but E.Z. was wrong.

  “It’s about money, and it’s about power. It always is.” Maddox was the treasurer. It was his specialty. If we were going to pay Hex at some point, for information I’d need Maddox.

  “I have to confront E.Z.” I knew it to my bones.

  “I think you do too. He sent you off before we voted. Never forget that,” Axle said.

  “So, we’re in agreement on what to do?” Maddox said.

  “We pay him cash to work on proof and give it to us if he finds it.”

  That was our plan. Keep Hex close. We would let him catch our rat.

  “We’re making a deal with the devil to find out who made a deal with the devil,” Shep said and he was right. We agreed. We were going to put things in motion that would either clean house or get us killed.

  Still. I wasn’t alone. I had to repeat that to myself over and over. I was in this fight shoulder to shoulder with them, and with Lyric.

  I left my brothers.

  The next steps were up to me.

  My first call, nine on the dot, was to Hex.

  He picked up the phone on the first ring as instructed.

  “You bring me proof of who made the deal with The Hawks, whatever dirt your piece of shit brother had, and I’ve got $50K for you.”

  “Fuck you. $100K.”

  “Listen to me. I’m the only offer you’re going to get. The rest of the club is willing to kill you and you’ll be just as gone as Dougie and Arnie.”

  “Fuck you. Fine. I’m working on it. I’m going to stay close to The Hawks. I’ll get proof and a name.”

  “Good. I don’t want to hear your shit or see your face until it’s solid. Keep this phone and don’t use it for anything else.” I hung up.

  I didn’t know if Hex would be able to produce what he claimed. A big part of me wanted him to fail. I didn’t want to believe that someone in my club, one of my brothers, was working against all of us.

  My next move had been coming for years. It was past time.

  I had a pit in my stomach.

  E.Z. was the closest thing I had to a father. He was tough on me. He didn’t shower with me with attention or affection. But he told me he was watching out for me. Like Bear watched out for Shep or old Sarge was in Maddox’s corner. I knew Bear also thought of Benz as his son.

  I was everyone’s brother, but no one’s son. E.Z. made that very clear.

  E.Z. had used that to keep me close. I feared he’d used that to get me to do what he wanted, regardless of the vote.

  E.Z. had only spoken to me once since I’d been back. Either he was pissed I’d done it without his say so or maybe he just liked making money off me by hiring me out.

  As I drove to his ranch, I tried to sort out what I’d say. When I got there he was sitting in his kitchen, the same kitchen where he’d told me to run like hell or I’d cause a war.

  He spoke first.

  “We need to talk, son.” He was emphasizing “son,” all of a sudden. Had my posture shifted as I entered the room? I sure felt like it had. I was ready for the worst and I braced myself.

  “Yeah, we do. Why did you lie and tell me the club authorized the killing of Arnie and Dougie?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “You let me think that the club wanted them dead but really you did.”

  “It’s semantics. We voted.”

  “You voted after I ran that I should run. No one remembers a vote about Arnie and Dougie being run out of town.”

  “Yeah? It was a long time ago.”

  “It was.”

  Clearly E.Z. didn’t have an answer for why I needed to kill them. He never did.

  “You told me they were a danger to the club. What kind of danger?”

  “Listen, I’m going to tell you something no one else knows.”

  My breathing got quiet and E.Z. lowered his voice.

  “Those two were trying to tell me that we had a fucking rat.”

  “What?” It was the exact same thing that Hex had said to me. Was he repeating it or was he trying to play it off? It was the last thing I expected him to say.

  “Yeah, they didn’t want to name names. They said they’d spy for me at The Hawks and then I could catch a Dark Saint in the act. That kind of talk is poison to our club. You were sent to stop that shit.”

  “But what if there was a rat?”

  “Are you stupid? A low-level Hawk asks for money in exchange for dirt on brother? Yeah, fuck off, you stupid Hawk. It’s the oldest trick in the book.”

  I was unsure about everything now. Was E.Z. lying or was E.Z. the rat?

  “I didn’t kill them.”

  “So you say. As far as the cops are concerned, you were the only suspect.”

  “I was. But now they don’t have anything on me.”

  If the security video was gone, there was nothing tangible anymore to connect me to murder. That was my entire reason for being back. But E.Z. seemed to doubt that.

  “Yeah, that’s the other thing we need to talk about.”

  “What?”

  “Take a look.”

  E.Z. produced his phone. He had a video on pause. I hit play but I knew what I was going to see.

  There I was, five years ago, outside of Cups, kicking the crap out of Dougie and Arnie.

  “I thought those were destroyed. The MC said the evidence was gone.”

  “Yeah? Well it’s clearly not.”

  E.Z. looked me in the eye. He was calm, stone cold actually.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “Anonymous message sent to me. But that evidence is out there somewhere. Someone has the tape and they’re happy to let me know it.”

  “Why?”

  “No idea. But I do know this. You best get the fuck out of Port Az again if you don’t want pretty little Detective Jen Guffy on the case. Or worse, the ATF. who are already sniffing around our door, by the way. How do you know Bear didn’t authorize you back in the fold just to throw you to the Feds? Maybe he’s wanting to make a deal to protect his precious boy Shep.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re telling me to run? Again?”

  “You’re damn right. If you
know what’s good for you. If I were you, I wouldn’t be telling your crew about it either.”

  I knew full well that the only person who knew that this security video had resurfaced was E.Z. I had just come from Shep, Axel, and Maddox. They would have given me this info. I knew they would have. This was E.Z. deciding things on his own. The question was why?

  “Don’t be fucking stupid. Get out. Get on the road. Go do what you do, bang heads.”

  “Even though you’re the one who killed Dougie and Arnie?”

  E.Z. looked at me with murder in his eyes. But still he didn’t move from the table. He barely reacted.

  “Of course, I fucking did. When people come at my club I handle it. I neutralize the threat. They were trying to blackmail The Dark Saints. I showed them and all The Hawks exactly what happens when you do that.”

  “And you let me take the fall.”

  “You didn’t take the fall.”

  “Sure felt like it.”

  “I made you pretty damn rich didn’t I? I got rid of the fucking threat and you got rich working for the MC. Excuse me if I don’t feel bad about that. It even took heat of your fucking girl, didn’t it?”

  E.Z. had set up the appointments with clubs that needed muscle and I had delivered the hurt. It was a great arrangement for him. He’d become the guy to call if you needed pain delivered with zero strings attached.

  “You set up a lot of jobs for me. No question. But here’s the thing, E.Z. I’m not running this time.”

  “They’re going to pin double murder on you.”

  “You’d let me fry for something you did?”

  “I’m important to the club. You’re not. And I know way more that could bring this club down. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Neither am I.”

  I was going to stand my ground.

  “You’re a big boy. If you want to take that risk, it’s up to you. I can’t keep protecting you. son.”

  “I’m no one’s son.”

  “Whatever.” E.Z. pulled out a cigarette and lit it. He looked me up and down.

  “So did they ever say, Dougie and Arnie, who they thought it was, the rat, maybe before you killed them? Did they give you any clue who?”

  “No, they just had some bullshit accusation that someone high up in our MC was dealing with The Hawks. That they were playing both sides against the middle as they say. It’s all horse shit from two idiots trying to score cash.”

  “And you took care of it and never got a name?”

  “Yep. No name to get when you’re just trying to shake us down. I’d be very careful trusting a Hawk over a Saint if I were you.”

  “Yeah. I’ll keep that in mind. You don’t seem to trust The Saints too much either.”

  I stood up and walked to the door. My back was to E.Z. I supposed he could have handled me like he handled Dougie and Arnie.

  He could have shot me right there.

  “Oh yeah, Old Lady got ya by the balls. They always do. Otherwise you’d get the hell out of here for good.”

  E.Z. took a drag as the screen door slammed behind me.

  E.Z. admitted to nothing except killing two people that he’d framed me for doing. His story was even plausible.

  As we planned, Shep, Maddox, and Axel met me be back at Lyric’s shop.

  She’d opened a storeroom for us. It was private. No one would see or hear us.

  “Of course, I fucking did. When people come at my club I handle it. I neutralize the threat…”

  I had taped my conversation with E.Z.

  “He admitted on tape that he killed Arnie and Dougie?!” Axle shook his head then raised his hand and rubbed his forehead.

  “We’ve all done things for the club that we don’t want on tape,” Maddox said and he was right. I had no interest in turning E.Z. in for anything. What I wanted was to see if Hex was telling the truth. What I wanted was to figure out if someone was actively working against us with the Hawks.

  “We know E.Z. lied to us all about killing Arnie and Dougie. But he covers his ass here. He very well could have done it because he thought he was protecting the club,” Maddox laid it out.

  “Or what Hex says is fucking true. And E.Z. killed those two to protect himself. And he pinned it on the member who trusted him most, Bo,” Shep said. And it hung in the air. Was E.Z. doing the hard work for the club? Or was he saving his ass by frying mine?

  “And he’s going to keep that tape to keep you in check,” Axle said.

  “Here’s what we do. We stay quiet. We listen. And we play along with Hex. If he finds the proof he says he can, great. If he doesn’t, that’s even better. Then we know E.Z. did try to protect the club. He just did it in the most fucked up way possible. The four of us, agreed?” Shep said.

  “Agreed,” Maddox, Axel, and I nodded. The four of us would work together. If there was something rotten in the Dark Saints, we’d find it.

  We’d work within the club. We’d watch E.Z.

  “And you, Bo? Don’t do anything alone. If we’d have been there five years ago, maybe we could have stopped you from getting sent out. I fucking hate that we failed you,” Maddox said to me.

  I put hand on his shoulder.

  “It’s alright. I’m not going to go it alone again. I have my brothers.”

  We all clasped hands, bumped shoulders, and then they all left quietly for the MC or their Old Ladies.

  I sat for a minute and thought about what it all meant. I had allies. E.Z. wasn’t my only lifeline anymore.

  “Hey! Bo!”

  Hugo bounced into the storage room and I hoisted him up into my arms. Shit. How could you fall so in love so fast? His mother had me asking that question of myself five years ago, and with this boy it took me five minutes. My brothers were my lifeline and Lyric and Hugo were my life. A life I didn’t deserve. But one I was going to hold on to with both fists.

  As hard as I could.

  “What’s up, Big Man?”

  “I have a Lego Zombie Minecraft House. I need help. Mommy says it drives her effin crazy.”

  “Are you supposed to say effin?”

  “No.” Hugo looked at me with a very mischievous smile. This kid was part me, no question about it.

  I walked out to the store and there she was. Lyric. She was stacking bracelets on some display.

  “You done here?” I asked her.

  “Sure am. All locked up tight, security activated!”

  “Good.”

  “Bo’s going to help me put that house together.”

  “If your mommy says I can come upstairs with you guys. She’s the boss.”

  “Oh, I know she is!”

  “You’ll put together Legos? Oh yes, you’re coming upstairs with us. I was going nuts what that! Bo’s good at putting things together.”

  “Cool!”

  I put a hand out and Hugo high fived me.

  I had a lot to share with Lyric. I had a lot I wanted her opinion about. But we had time.

  We had all night.

  And if I had my way, the rest of our lives.

  21

  Lyric – One Month Later

  * * *

  Tracy and Maddox’s house at The Castle provided good cover.

  Tracy and I would brainstorm at Wilde at Home for how to make The Castle come to life.

  And Maddox would meet with the small contingent of Dark Saints.

  Axle introduced me to Maya and their new baby and soon I had more and more ideas for Wilde at Home Baby! Again, it provided a reason for Axle, Maddox, Shep, and Bo to meet.

  Bo valued my advice on how to move forward when you weren’t sure who to trust. He’d never really opened up to anyone, and now we were all watching his back.

  I didn’t want to know the inner-workings of the club, but I did want to know that the men Bo had sacrificed for were men who were worth it.

  I was getting closer and closer with this small contingent of Dark Saints as the weeks wore on. Their wives and Old Ladies welcomed me. They ans
wered questions. They gave advice on how they handled being in love with a man who wore the patch.

  And I was certain. Yes, these men, they were different. They were fierce, funny, tough, and still so dangerous. But there was no denying that we loved them. And no denying that they loved each other.

  At least most of them did. E.Z. didn’t have Bo’s back. I knew that now. And I was wary of him. I reminded Bo to be too.

  The secret plans moved forward, quietly. Usually in one of my storerooms, and always with good cover from the Old Ladies who shopped at my stores.

  I watched out for my Dark Saint above all.

  Because he was mine. And I was his.

  Maddox, Shep, Axle, and Bo appeared to collect their significant others after their meetings were done.

  On that front, Shep was still a shameless flirt and totally unattached.

  “How’s that tattoo looking these days? I still never got to see it,” he said winking at me as Bo showed up.

  “And you never fucking will.”

  “You never know.” Shep smiled at me and I laughed. Bo glared at Shep like he was planning to rip his head off.

  “You ready?”

  “Yep, my staff is all set for the afternoon. Let’s do this little road trip.”

  It wasn’t exactly a surprise that Bo had purchased acreage. He told me early on after we’d gotten back together. He said he had wanted it to build a retreat for himself, a man cave.

  “Now I want to build you whatever you want. A house, a showplace for your designs, whatever you want. I’ll even stick to the man cave plan if you need a break from me.”

  “We’ve had enough break, I think.”

  Hugo was ready to go.

  “I wore my poo kickin’ boots.”

  “Your what?”

  “Bo says it’s rough, I need to have my poo kickers on.”

  Bo was working on not swearing around our four-year-old. It was a work in progress.

  “If you hate it, I’ll sell it,” Bo said. He was willing to fit his life around mine. But honestly, the apartment above the store was where my mom raised me. It was where I had managed my life as a single mother.

  We were a bigger family now. I was open to something new. I liked the idea of starting something fresh.

  It wasn’t my three-second commute down the stairs, but it wasn’t too far away.